Chapter Ten
T he sun had set, the kids asleep, Emmanuel and Elizabeth upstairs. Which, according to Sasha, meant it was time to party. Or at least as close to a party as we could get.
“Alright, everyone, grab your liquor of choice,” Sasha said to our group, passing around the bottles she had stuffed inside her bag.
There were five bottles in total, two vodkas, two tequilas, and one whiskey. Rainer and Murphy took the whiskey to share, Aiden grabbing a tequila, Warner and Sasha a vodka, leaving me and Mina to share the last tequila.
A small fire sparked in between our makeshift circle, lighting up our faces in a dark glow. Twisting the cap of the bottle, the strong scent of tequila hit my nose and I wondered briefly if this was a good idea. It had been over six months since I had taken a drink, let alone the scant amount of food we often ate, and I suspected most of us would be drunk quicker than we anticipated.
However, as everyone chugged the alcohol in their hands, I figured, fuck it. We deserved some fun. Even if that fun came from the bottom of a bottle. Pressing the rim of the bottle to my lips, I swallowed the bitter taste, my face pinching.
Mina laughed quietly at the disgust marring my features as I handed her the bottle. She was much more efficient than me, barely cringing, and my eyes widened.
Laughing louder at my expression, she said, “I am in college, you know. I was in the middle of the party part of my life when everything happened.”
For the next while, we all chugged the liquor, everyone quiet as we stared at the fire. But as the time passed, the bottles becoming empty; the alcohol began buzzing through our veins, enlivening the night.
“You’re going to burn your ass off,” Aiden warned Murphy, who stood off to the side of the fire.
The rest of us had backed up, giving him plenty of room after he had announced that he was going to leap the fire.
“Do it, do it, do it,” Sasha, Mina, and I chanted, Aiden seeming to be the only voice of reason.
Even Rainer stood behind Murphy, rubbing his shoulders and whispering something to him, like a coach would to an athlete before a big event.
Warner stood off to the side by himself, but I could tell the alcohol was hitting him, given the lazy smirk on his lips and the glaze in his eyes.
The small fire we had started with had grown into a large bonfire as we had kept feeding it wood. And as Murphy bent down into a running stance, I belatedly realized this may actually be a crappy idea.
But it was too late as he took off sprinting, leaping with both legs and cresting the height of the flames. He was several inches above the licking fire, bypassing it easily. Landing on both feet, he immediately stumbled, crashing to the ground and rolling.
Hoots and hollers erupted, all of us cheering him on. Rainer sprinted to his side, lifting him into his arms and hoisting him up. Running around our circle, we all cheered for him, as if he had just won the Olympics.
The antics continued late into the night. After Murphy’s triumphant jump, we set up different obstacles with piles of wood, seeing who could jump the highest. Even Warner joined in the participation.
Mina and I could barely leap over the smallest stack, Aiden not far behind us. To say we weren’t an athletic family was an understatement, there was a reason we all went into the medical field.
To my surprise, Rainer couldn’t keep up with the others, although part of that could be because he was stumbling over every step. His smile was wide as he tripped around the wood, the alcohol allowing his grumpy demeanor to fade.
Warner, Murphy, and Sasha were battling head to head over the last stack of wood, which sat near my waist. Warner went first, his eyes focused and lips flat. Taking off into a sprint, his feet twisted with each other, tripping him before he even reached the wood. Landing flat on his face, we all quieted. But when he rolled over with a groan, peels of laughter echoed throughout the star speckled sky.
Sasha was next. “Ten bucks says I beat your ass,” she shouted to Murphy, getting into her stance.
“But none of us have money!” Mina reminded her, falling against me as laughter shook her body.
I held her body up as we watched Sasha race toward the wood. Her jump was clean, and I thought she was going to make it, until her right foot clipped the wood, sending her tumbling. Aiden was at her side, the doctor in him never fading even when he was drunk.
However, he didn’t need to worry. She stood up quickly, throwing her hands over her head with a wide smiling gracing her lips. Murphy was next and, of course, he made the jump easily, being crowned the winner once again.
After a few rounds of arm wrestling in which I lost to everyone and Warner won, a silly game of tag that had us all out of breath, and a game of charades that ended in more confusion than guesses, we all settled back around the fire.
It was deep into the night, the sunrise right around the corner, and the drunken haze was beginning to fade. Aiden sat on my right, my head resting against his shoulder as I stared at the fire.
“I miss my parents,” Mina said softly, the words slipping from her uninhibited lips.
Everyone was silent for a moment, none of us used to talking about our families. It was a pain we all held, but mostly ignored.
“I miss my sister, her birthday was last month. She turned twelve,” Sasha added, smiling wistfully as her eyes pooled with tears.
“Alex would have been thirty-two in a couple weeks,” Aiden added and I pressed my head harder into his shoulder.
I couldn’t help but notice the difference between Sasha's and Aiden’s words. Sasha still spoke in the present tense, having hope that her sister was alive. We knew our brother was dead.
“Do you think this is happening everywhere else? The camps?” I asked.
Although I didn’t understand the science my dad had been researching, Emmanuel had explained that because of the size of the meteorite, no one above ground would be able to survive the impact, or at least not for long. Dust from the impact would cause the surrounding area to heat, killing all life. And then the rest of the country would cool dramatically, killing off the rest. Add in the earthquakes and tsunamis and, to put it lightly, everyone was fucked.
“I’m sure they are. Rounding us up like cattle for the slaughter,” Rainer spit out angrily.
“How do you think they chose who gets to go to the bunkers?” Sasha asked, and this time Warner responded.
“Whoever has the money. That’s how the world works. Even when it’s ending, you can pay your way into survival.”
His words were just as bitter as Rainer’s. I realized they had lived a different life than I had, one filled with struggle. And I couldn’t help but notice that although I had shed some of the naivete I had held onto, I still had a lot to learn about the rest of the world around me. If only I had the time to do so.
None of us wanted to focus too long on the upcoming death that awaited most of the world, the topic changing back to the families we missed. Each of us shared stories of the loved ones we had left behind, reminiscing not in sadness, but in memory.
The only one who stayed quiet was Murphy and when he eventually got up, walking toward the woods alone, I knew he was thinking of his mom. He had always been so optimistic, hoping she was alright. But he wasn’t the same man anymore and worry settled in my chest.
Standing to my feet, I trailed behind him, stopping when he did. He leaned against a tree, blocking us from view of the others. And when I spotted the tears in his eyes, I knew why.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I whispered, stepping closer to him.
Squeezing his eyes tight, he let out a shuddered breath. “I was stupid to think she’d be okay. Living in a make believe land where everyone would be alright.”
His words were so broken, his shoulders slumped, and I hated to see him like this. He was a bright light, one that didn’t deserve to be extinguished by the cruel world around us.
Taking another step closer, I gripped his hand in my mine, waiting until his eyes opened. “You are not stupid. Before I knew the truth, I wanted to believe my family was okay. And then I found Aiden.”
I knew it wasn’t the same for Murphy. He wasn’t from the area, he couldn’t walk into the camp and hope his mom was there waiting for him. But for now, it was all I had.
Murphy reached up, cupping my cheeks in his hands. “I thought that everything would be okay. And then you were taken right from under my nose.” He swallowed roughly. “How can I possibly believe things will be okay when I witnessed you go through the worst?”
Covering his hands with my own, I pressed my forehead against his. “Because I survived. I’m okay. And if your mom is anything like you, then she’s a survivor.”
Murphy swallowed roughly once more and then his lips were on mine, taking the breath from my lungs. The touch was different than Warner’s, that was fire and desperation, whereas this was a languid caress, an emotional connection.
His mouth moved in tandem with mine, soft but pressing, and then his tongue slid across my lips, asking for entrance. Opening my mouth, our tongues tangled together, slow and sweet.
His hands skated down my face, sliding past my neck and down my hips. One hand reached for my thigh, bringing it up and wrapping it around his waist. His hips pressed into me, his hardness meeting my center.
I moaned into his mouth, his lips capturing the sound. His other hand slid around my hip, sliding up my stomach until he palmed my breast. Pressing into the touch, he kneaded my flesh, my hips grinding against him, begging for friction.
My mind was all Murphy, his woodsy scent, the feel of his new scruff under my fingers, the heat of his body mingling with mine. And yet, in the recess of my brain, I couldn’t help but think of another moment like this one. And how it was unfair to the man in front of me.
Breaking away from the kiss, we both breathed heavily. Before I could talk myself out of it, I blurted, “I kissed Warner.”
I waited for Murphy’s rejection, for him to push me away, but none of that came. Instead, he pulled me closer, rolling his hips against mine in a delicious rhythm, my head falling back on a groan.
“And you almost died. And we’re all going to die in a few months. None of it really matters.” He tipped my chin up until my eyes were locked with his. “All that matters is that a strong.” He kissed the underside of my jaw. “Beautiful.” He sucked on my neck. “And goddamn sexy woman is in my arms.” He rolled his hips against mine once more. “And as long as you’re okay with it, I’m going to take advantage of the fact that our hearts are still beating and mine’s telling me I’ve never felt this way before.”
Gripping the strands of his short hair between my fingers, his light hazel eyes searing into me, I ghosted my lips over his. “I am more than okay with it.” He leaned forward, ready to brush his lips against mine once more, but I backed away. Swallowing, I opened my heart to him, knowing he deserved the words. “And it’s because I know I’ve never felt this way before. And I’m going to chase that feeling for as long as I can.”
This time, I allowed Murphy’s lips to reach mine, falling deeper into his embrace. His hands caressed my sides, my hands running along the planes of his firm chest. His fingers trailed along my stomach, reaching the hem of my shirt and pulling. Lifting my arms over my head, he tugged the material off, baring me to him.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he muttered, his hands reaching to cup my breasts.
He rolled my nipples between his fingers, my breaths coming faster and shorter as pleasure coursed through me. Leaning forward, his mouth captured one of my nipples, sucking and licking as his free hand skated down my stomach, flicking the button open on my pants.
“Please,” I whispered into the silent air.
And then the silence was no more. Shouts and yells filled the silence, my spine snapping straight and my head tilting around the tree. But the tree was too thick and I couldn’t see the others.
“Murphy!” A voice yelled.
“Alessia!” Another voice screamed.
Throwing my shirt on quickly, Murphy and I sprinted around the tree and back to the fire, but it was too late. At least ten masked men had each of our friends in their arms, their bodies limp. My legs never stopped, pumping toward the masked intruders, but my head was still dizzy from the drinks, my movements sluggish.
They were gone from my sight before I even reached the fire. Murphy halted next to me, his gaze straying to the darkness where our friends had just been taken.
“I’m so sorry,” a gruff voice whispered in the darkness and I whipped toward the noise.
Emmanuel stood on the porch, the fire lighting up his distraught features. Wringing his hands together, he stepped toward us, Murphy moving my body behind his.
“Sorry for what?” I croaked, unable to speak clearly around the lump in my throat. They were gone. They were taken. What would they do to them?
“I had to save my family. I had to make sure we got a spot in those bunkers.” He continued walking toward us, but Murphy held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks.
“What did you do?” Murphy asked, his voice filled with sorrow and hatred.
“I promised I’d take over your dad’s research if they saved my family. I had no other choice,” he begged us to understand, but I shook my head.
“And did you also tell them to kidnap us?” Oh god, Aiden. They were going to torture him again. Maybe even kill him.
“No, no.” Emmanuel shook his head adamantly. “I had no idea they were going to do that. I thought they’d just let you be.”
Murphy barked out a rough laugh. “You thought they’d leave us alone? After what they did to Alessia? You really thought they’d let us go, knowing you could leak information to us?”
Emmanuel’s dark features looked ashen under the moonlight as he realized the truth of Murphy’s words. He hadn’t thought this through.
“I am so sorry,” he whispered once more and the remorse on his face was clearer than a sunny day.
But no forgiveness lived inside of me. Not when the people I cared about were now in the hands of the people that haunted my dreams.